1. My Small Scale Research Project will focus on:
‘Is Alfred Hitchcock an ‘Auteur’?”
This article was written by Michael Massey in the 2010 edition of Media Magazine
 But what does being an Auteur mean in practice?
 Why are some directors regarded as auteurs and others not?
 How do you know when you’re watching a film directed by an auteur?
The article describes an ‘auteur’ as:
“some film directors should be regarded as the single creators of their films, much as a writer is
regarded as the creator of a novel.”
It goes on to assert that auteurs: “impose a personal vision on their films” - by this they mean that the
director very much has their own personal stamp or signature that makes films recognisable or
unique as theirs.
The article lists many of the conventions that appear in many of Hitchcock’s films using Psycho as a
particular case study.
Some of these auteur conventions revolve around themes and plot points but many of them are
visually recognisable.
Some of which include...
”single-take shots” - the example given in the article is the opening shot from Psycho, however to
add further proof to this auteur theory we can also look at the following shots some off which are
more than a minute long from the film “Frenzy”
Some of the points made by Massey can be proven in just the one scene from Psycho. For example the
following two points are considered by Massey to be conventions typical of a Hitchcock film:
”very precise editing to create tension and surprise” as well as “complex montage”
both of these points can obviously be seen in perhaps Hitchcock’s most famous set piece; the shower
scene from Psycho...
The article goes on to discuss how Hitchcock himself understood that he could use the style of his
films to elicit something from the audience.
”Hitchcock believed that it was the director’s responsibility to trigger the audience’s emotional
and psychological response by what he called ‘pure film’.”
Further evidence of this point comes in the form of an archived interview with the director himself
whereby he outlines his own feelings of style vs content.